Update: Google Chrome cupcake is gone, along with multiple profiles

Last week, I wrote that users of the developer and canary releases of Google’s Chrome browser suddenly were seeing a cupcake icon in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. The icon was there because Google was testing a new feature – multiple profiles – but there was no way to remove it, or turn the feature off.

Some users had tried by deleting the current profile, but that had the unfortunate side effect of delete all the user’s bookmarks.

With a new version of Chrome in the developer and canary channels on Tuesday, the cupcake icon is now gone. The multiple profile featurehas been disabled.

All’s right in the Chrome world now, yes? Well, not for everyone.

While many users complained about suddenly seeing a cupcake icon they couldn’t remove, others welcomed our new multi-profile overlords, and began to actually use the feature. When the feature was removed, so was the user info that had been saved to the multiple profiles, as commenter Dr. A pointed out in a post to last week’s TechBlog entry.

The cupcake is removed now, and with it our access to information we have transferred to the multiple profiles.

Free cupcakes without notice is a surprise. Cupcakes taken without notice is a crime.

As I wrote earlier, I don’t think Google’s developers handled this in a particularly elegant manner. The feature should have had an off switch before it was added to the pre-release builds. The problem’s compounded now by those who actually sought to use the feature, and find it completely removed.

Yeah, I know, that’s life when you’re using cutting-edge, pre-beta software. Features will come and go, sometimes taking the data they’ve stored with them. But there are steps Chrome’s developers could have taken to prevent the pain.

Update: The multiple profiles feature has indeed been disabled in the Windows version of the Chrome canary and developer builds, but it’s still available to try if you’re using the Mac version. Type chrome://flags into the address bar and hit enter to see a list of available, experimental features to turn on. (The obvious warning applies: Turn these on at your own risk.)

In the Mac version, the multi-profile icon appears in the upper right corner of the window.